Rahul to evoke Nehru to revive Cong's fortunes in UP

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who was clearly the party's best bet, was all set to evoke the memory of his great grandfather and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the latter's own soil in Allahabad on Monday.

The party hopes of reviving its fortunes in the country's most populous state, where it has been in oblivion for two long decades.

"Nehru ji ki yaad karenge ; Rahul ji ke saath challenge" ('Will remember Nehru, will walk with Rahul') is the key slogan emboldened on all hoardings and posters plastered all across Allahabad, from where the young Nehru-Gandhi scion will kick-start the Congress party's campaign for the 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

As if to drive the Nehru message deeper home, the venue of Rahul's much hyped rally has been strategically kept in one corner of the adjoining Phoolpur Lok Sabha constituency (on the city outskirts), once known as the impregnable political bastion of Jawaharlal Nehru.

The fact that the Nehru-Gandhi family lost all connection with the constituency in the post-Nehru era has been systematically ignored by team Rahul managers.

Interestingly, while the posters do have tiny pictures of both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, other prominent members of the Nehru-Gandhi clan -- Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi -- are conspicuous by their absence.

"This is the first time that we do not see even a mention of Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi on the hoardings and posters announcing Rahul Gandhi's public rally here", remarked a veteran Congressman who wonders 'what is the grand idea behind this?'

Congress leaders involved with the preparations for the mega event were, however, confident of turning the Congress party's fortunes by projecting Rahul in a completely new mode.

Besides invoking Nehru, the event managers were apparently all set to depict the "angry young man" in Rahul -- what was vividly visible on some of the hoardings.

Asked to comment on his sudden makeover as an "angry young man", Union Coal Minister Shree Prakash Jaiswal, who has been camping in Allahabad for Monday's big show, observed, "Well, when Rahul ji says that the pathetic state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh makes him angry, he means to convey his serious concern for the state."

However, there was another set of Congressmen who interpret this differently.

"Rahul's anger was also against certain policies of his own party's government led by Manmohan Singh; and sure enough that was the reason he was looking up to his great grandfather in the hope of taking the path shown by him," a Congress worker noted.

It was this Congress group that had gone to the extent of putting up giant sized posters with the slogan -- "Mata bimar; mantrimandal lachar ; Rahul ji karo netritva sweekar " ('Mother unwell; council of ministers is helpless; it is high time Rahul that you take over the reins of governance.")

While Congress leaders got the posters removed in a huff, there were still many takers for the appeal.